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 Posted:   Feb 21, 2024 - 5:54 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

Don Davis and Juno Reactor on THE MATRIX
Christopher Young and Paul Oakenfold on SWORDFISH
Michael Kamen and Orbital on EVENT HORIZON
Ennio Morricone and John Carpenter/Alan Howarth on THE THING(?)

I've always been fascinated by these synth/acoustic combo scores, whether the collaboration is truly collaborative, or whether one has added to the other more independently. I'm not talking about individual tracks and remixes here, but whole scores.

What are some examples and favourites of yours?

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 21, 2024 - 6:00 AM   
 By:   Laurent78   (Member)

Hoping it's fitting the category you've in mind, I'm hooked by the sound co-created by Gabriel Yared and Underworld for BREAKING AND ENTERING (2006). Funnily enough, I know absolutely nothing about Underworld, made up of Karl Hyde & Rick Smith.

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 21, 2024 - 6:02 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

Yes, that's a good example! Underworld is great on their own too -- my favourite albums are SECOND TOUGHEST IN THE INFANTS and the weirdly titled DUBNOBASSWITHMYHEADMAN.

 
 Posted:   Feb 21, 2024 - 6:12 AM   
 By:   Ny   (Member)

Breakdown by Poledouris and then a few synth composers, who added to and amended his acoustic score. Can't fault the end result.

 
 Posted:   Feb 21, 2024 - 6:29 AM   
 By:   Nicolai P. Zwar   (Member)

Just as a side note: Carpenter und Morricone didn't actually collaborate; it was just that Carpenter composed a few synthesizer cues (for the opening title and two short sequences) for THE THING independently of Morricone's contribution.

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 21, 2024 - 6:31 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

Yeah, I remember something vaguely like that, although I don't remember the specifics of the THING situation. Which is why I pointed out that both things are valid here -- both proper collaborative efforts and those where they've done stuff more or less independently, but then it's all come together in the end.

 
 Posted:   Feb 21, 2024 - 7:59 AM   
 By:   Nicolai P. Zwar   (Member)

Yeah, I just wanted to point out that in comparison to say, Don Davis and Juno Reactor, Carpenter's musical contribution for THE THING was comparatively insignificant, since Morricone contributed not just the orchestral, but also most of the electronic music in the movie; Carpenter just did a few "filler" synth additions.

Another interesting (and perhaps more famous) collaboration was between Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Byrne (and Cong Su) for THE LAST EMPEROR, with Sakamoto focusing on the orchestral cues and Byrne's was more electronic/sampled.

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 22, 2024 - 12:24 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

I suppose another favourite of mine -- perhaps the alltime favourite in this particular "genre" -- is THE NEVERENDING STORY. True, there is plenty of synth and drum kits in Doldinger's primarily orchestral material too, but that just makes the mix with the Moroder stuff all the more organic.

 
 Posted:   Feb 22, 2024 - 5:27 AM   
 By:   johnbijl   (Member)

Composer Joseph Trapanese worked with both Daft Punk (for Tron) and M83 (for Oblivion) to provide the score. Though he's only credited as composer on Oblivion, it's my understanding he did more than just arranging on Tron.

Trapanese also arranged an album for Moby with a... Reprise of his songs for orchestra. Quite the album! Non-filmscore, but it does contain Moby's hit Go, and therefore has a symphonic version of Angelo Badalmenti's Laura Palmer theme from Twin Peaks. It also has orchestra backed version of God moving over the face of the waters, which was used as the finale in Heat.

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 22, 2024 - 5:34 AM   
 By:   ZardozSpeaks   (Member)



Is Thor aware that Richard Harvey was the synthesizer collaborator with Stanley Myers BEFORE Hans Zimmer was?

There is an LP of the 1981 Lady Chatterley's Lover which has never been re-issued onto CD.

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 22, 2024 - 5:38 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

Is Thor aware that Richard Harvey was the synthesizer collaborator with Stanley Myers BEFORE Hans Zimmer was?

I am, but the Zimmer/Myers collaboration is a good example of this too. Things like INSIGNIFICANCE or CASTAWAY, for example.

 
 Posted:   Feb 22, 2024 - 5:42 AM   
 By:   johnbijl   (Member)

I wasn't!

I was quite surprised when Harvey was part of the band in Zimmer's first orchestra tour. Now it makes sense :-D

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 22, 2024 - 5:51 AM   
 By:   Hurdy Gurdy   (Member)

The 2019 fantasy adventure film THE KID WHO WOULD BE KING featured a hybrid orchestral/synth beat score from Matt Dunkley (the orchestral parts) and Electric Wave Bureau* (the modern beats).



*a unit who include Blur's Damon Albarn.

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 23, 2024 - 4:26 PM   
 By:   Hurdy Gurdy   (Member)

I suppose Matt Dunkley also contributed mightily to last years mega success BARBIE.
Although the score is attributed to Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, who are primarily record producers (DJ, mixer, singer/songwriter), the giveaway credit is Music Orchestrated & Conducted by Matt Dunkley.
I doubt the score would sound the way it did without his guiding hands/overall contributions.

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 24, 2024 - 2:28 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

Some good suggestions in this thread, but we're starting to drain this particular sub genre, I think.

I thought about THE GOLDEN CHILD for a moment, but that doesn't really qualify, even if some of Barry's unused music may have ended up in the film, among the synth music by Colombier. I don't remember the nuts and bolts of that production.

And then we could go down on track level, of course, with things like The Propellerheads' work on "Backseat Driver" in David Arnold's TOMORROW NEVER DIES. But that breaks my own rule about not including invididual tracks.

Or more esoteric background people, like Joseph Williams providing the electronic backdrops on his father's A.I., but again not really what I had in mind.

 
 Posted:   Feb 24, 2024 - 2:48 AM   
 By:   johnbijl   (Member)

Agreed.

I was temped to add Joel Goldsmith’s synth work on his father’s scores, but that’s more hiring a musician-slash-programmer than a collaboration on composition. I wouldn’t name Ian Underwood/James Horner as well.

Though it can’t be understated how important both Joel and Ian were in the texture of the scores they worked on. The shaping of a particular sound can be instrumental in a score. As Giacchino once said, writing for electronics requires a composer to use ‘a different part of his brain’.

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 24, 2024 - 3:42 AM   
 By:   Hurdy Gurdy   (Member)

There was no collaboration on THE GOLDEN CHILD.
Barry's music was replaced by Colombier's but certain JB cues stayed in the film.

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 24, 2024 - 3:48 AM   
 By:   slint   (Member)

I am confused here, as electroacoustic is a well defined genre of music (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroacoustic_music) but none of the scores discussed here fit that genre. I am therefore assuming that electro-acoustic with "hyphen" means something completely different!

 
 Posted:   Feb 24, 2024 - 3:57 AM   
 By:   Ian Murphy   (Member)

John Murphy and Underworld's score to Sunshine is a favourite of mine - would that qualify? There are a number of cues where they're described as co-writers alongside pieces credited individually to each.

 
 
 Posted:   Feb 24, 2024 - 4:03 AM   
 By:   Thor   (Member)

There was no collaboration on THE GOLDEN CHILD.
Barry's music was replaced by Colombier's but certain JB cues stayed in the film.


Yeah. Again, "collaboration" in the headline is a bit misleading, since I count both proper collaborations and scores put together by two different composers (one acoustic, one synth) working independently. But THE GOLDEN CHILD wouldn't count in any case, since they were never INTENDED to co-exist from the get-go. It just ended up that way because two scores were composed for the film.

I am confused here, as electroacoustic is a well defined genre of music (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electroacoustic_music) but none of the scores discussed here fit that genre. I am therefore assuming that electro-acoustic with "hyphen" means something completely different!

Yes, the hyphen is crucial, to delineate it from the established genre. In this case, it means a combination of acoustic and electronic elements, composed by two different entities.

 
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